Monday, August 3
Form Factors, Grey Bodies and Radiation Conductances
Instructor: Steven Rickman, JSC
Course Description: Students are introduced to basic thermal radiation analysis in undergraduate heat transfer courses but little focus in given to techniques employed for thermal radiation analysis in the real world. This theory-based short course provides an introduction to thermal radiation form factors, grey bodies and radiation conductances. Various techniques of form factor calculation are explored and demonstrated. Radiation interchange using, both, monte carlo and radiosity techniques is demonstrated.
Biography: Steve Rickman joined the NASA Engineering and Safety Center in January 2009 as the NASA Technical Fellow for Passive Thermal. In this capacity, he leads a cross-agency Technical Discipline Team, leveraging expertise from within and outside of the Agency to solve high risk technical problems and foster a community of practice for the passive thermal control and thermal protection disciplines. His primary interest has been in the area of passive thermal control of orbiting spacecraft. He has authored or co-authored 14 technical papers and conference presentations including public testimony given with the U.S. Air Force to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He authored a textbook chapter on natural and induced thermal environments. He holds a U.S. patent as a co-inventor of an innovative space station concept. Steve has received numerous mentoring, Group Achievement, Tech Brief and Space Act Awards and has been honored with the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal. In autumn 2011, he was named an Adjunct Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University. Mr. Rickman received a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and earned his M.S. in Physical Science from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
Thermal Hardware for Thermal Analysts
Instructor: David Steinfeld, GSFC
Course Description: Most Thermal analysts do not have a good background into the hardware which thermally controls the spacecraft they design. SINDA and Thermal Desktop models are nice, but knowing how this applies to the actual thermal hardware (heaters, thermostats, thermistors, MLI blanketing, optical coatings, etc…) is just as important. The course will delve into the thermal hardware and their application techniques on actual spacecraft. Knowledge of how thermal hardware is used and applied will make a thermal analyst a better engineer.
Biography: Mr. Steinfeld received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech and his MS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas-Arlington. He has worked as a thermal engineer for over 30 years. Mr. Steinfeld’s experience spans every aspect of the field: analysis, testing, hardware integration, and launch support. He has worked on many different types of systems including high and low altitude aircraft experiments, missile and Space Shuttle (reentry aero-thermodynamic heating), and various spacecraft/instruments such as International Space Station, Space Shuttle, Hubble Telescope, TRIANA, SDO, STEREO, ELC, LRR, MOMA, GLAS, MMS.
Systems Engineering
Instructor: Fernando Pellerano, GSFC
Course Description: This short course provides information on what systems engineering is and how the systems engineer guides requirements, interfaces with the discipline leads, and resolves technical issues. There are many system-wide issues that either impact or are impacted by the thermal subsystem. This course will introduce these issues and illustrate them with real life examples.
Biography: Fernando Pellerano has been at GSFC since 1990 and is currently the Chief Engineer of the Instrument Systems & Technology Division/550. He’s an electrical engineer with a background on microwave radiometry. He has served as the Instrument Systems Engineer for several in-house instrument developments including the Aquarius Sea-Surface Salinity Radiometer in partnership with JPL and Argentina’s CONAE, the Thermal InfraRed Sensor (TIRS) for Landsat-8, and most recently the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter Systems (ATLAS) for the ICESat-2 mission. In between instrument developments Fernando was also the Chief Instrument Development Engineer for the Instrument Management and Systems Office where he was a senior technical advisor to Instrument Managers, Systems Engineers, and office management on matters of engineering policies and practices, as well as technical problem resolution.
Tuesday, August 4
Lithium-ion Batteries: Fundamentals, Thermal Performance, and Understanding Thermal Runaway/Propagation
Instructor: William Walker, JSC
Course Description: This short course provides discussion on three aspects to lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that are relevant to the TFAWS community. First an understanding of Li-ion battery fundamentals is provided through discussion centered around the aerospace industry’s choice to use Li-ion batteries, general performance characteristics, and electrochemical reaction basics. Secondly, thermal performance during nominal charge-discharge operations is discussed building from a general energy balance for representing the local heat generation of a given Li-ion cell. Finally a discussion on understanding the causes and effects of thermal runaway and propagation is presented. The overall goal of the course is to provide participants with an in-depth understanding of the thermal aspects to lithium-ion battery test and analysis.
Biography: Mr. Walker graduated from West Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and began his career with Johnson Space Center (JSC) after the spring 2012 semester. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Houston with a research focus on thermo-electrochemical testing and analysis of lithium-ion batteries designed for space applications. Mr. Walker is the recipient of a 2015-2016 JSC Academic Fellowship offer for lithium-ion battery thermal runaway research.
Aerothermal Ground Testing: How, Where and Why?
Instructors: Scott Berry and Karen Berger, LARC
Course Description: This course will include an overview of the major hypersonic ground test facilities around the country and their capabilities. Test techniques and instrumentation available to researchers will be covered as well. A summary of a number of major ground testing and flight programs over the years will be covered and will highlight the significant contributions obtained through ground testing. This will include blunt, slender and winged configurations.’
Biographies:
Scott Berry has twenty-five years of experience at NASA Langley Research Center with the application of state-of-the-art wind tunnel test techniques for aero-heating assessment of advanced hypersonic air breathing, space transportation, and planetary entry vehicles. He has supported numerous agency programs, including Shuttle and Hyper-X. He graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1983 and George Washington University with a MS in Aeronautical Engineering in 1986.
Karen Berger is the Facility Manager for the Langley Aerothermodynamics Laboratory at NASA Langley Research Center. She started at NASA as a co-op student in 2003, joined the Aerothermodynamics Branch in 2005 as a researcher and transferred to the facility manager role in 2014. She got her BS and MS in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2005 and 2009 respectively.
Introduction to Heat Pipes
Instructor: Jentung Ku, GSFC
Course Description: This course will present operating principles of the heat pipe with emphases on the underlying physical processes and requirements of pressure and energy balance. Performance characterizations and design considerations of the heat pipe will be highlighted. Guidelines for thermal engineers in the selection of heat pipes as part of the spacecraft thermal control system, testing methodology, and analytical modeling will also be discussed.
Biography: Dr. Jentung Ku has been working on the development of advanced thermal control devices, and supporting many NASA flight projects. He served as Principal Investigator for five flight experiments of two-phase devices aboard the Space Shuttle, and several NASA Headquarters funded technology development projects.
Introduction to Loop Heat Pipes
Instructor: Jentung Ku, GSFC
Course Description: This course will discuss operating principles and performance characteristics of a loop heat pipe. Topics include: 1) pressure profiles in the loop; 2) loop operating temperature; 3) operating temperature control; 4) loop startup; 4) loop shutdown; 5) loop transient behaviors; 6) sizing of loop components and determination of fluid inventory; 7) analytical modeling; 8) examples of flight applications; and 9) recent LHP developments.
Biography: See Above
Wednesday, August 5
Cryo Design, Implementation, and Design/Testing
Instructor: Michael Dipirro, GSFC
Course Description: This short course provides some basic principles of cryogenics. The differences between room temperature and cryogenic thermal analysis, namely temperature dependent properties, will be discussed. Practical information, such as the materials for thermal contact and isolation, will be included. The verification process and instrumentation used that is unique to cryogenic (in general < 100K) systems will be described.
Biography: After receiving a PhD in Low Temperature Physics from SUNY Buffalo, Michael Dipirro has worked in the Cryogenics and Fluids Branch at Goddard since its inception in 1980. He was privileged to work on the earliest missions to use superfluid helium in space, IRAS and COBE, and was the PI on a technology mission to demonstrate the fluid management and transfer of liquid helium called the Superfluid Helium On-Orbit Transfer Flight Demonstration launched in 1993. He is currently working on the ASTRO-H Soft Xray Spectrometer containing a long life dewar (40 liters of superfluid helium to last 4+ years on orbit) and an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator producing an operating temperature of 0.05 K. He is also the cryogenic system engineer for the James Webb Space Telescope.
ISS Payload Thermal Environments
Instructors: Laurie Carrillo, Caryn Preston, and David Farner
Course Description: The purpose of this course is to help an external payload developer understand the potential thermal environments associated with the various mission phases from launch to installation on the International Space Station (ISS). In addition, the course will focus on thermal analysis resources/approaches which have been developed by the ISS Passive Thermal Control System (PTCS) team to support external payload development. An overview of the ISS-Program baseline thermal model and model integration tips will be provided.
Biography: Laurie Carrillo completed her PhD in Mechanical Engineering in May 2011 from Rice University in Houston, Texas. She has been a member of the NASA ISS Passive Thermal Team for 7 years and a NASA Johnson Space Center engineer for 17 years. Dr. Carrillo is a licensed Texas Professional Engineer and former TFAWS Conference Chair. She is also co-chairing the Passive Thermal Paper Session for the 2nd time at this year’s TFAWS.
Biography: David Farner holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois and a MS in Systems Engineering from the University of Houston. He has been part of the Johnson Space Center Thermal Community since 1984 and has worked on a variety of manned spaceflight projects ranging from the Space Shuttle to the ISS, as well as a number of advanced thermal projects.
Biography: Caryn Preston holds BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Mexico and University of Minnesota, respectively. She has been part of Boeing’s ISS Passive Thermal Control Systems team since 1999, providing thermal support for ISS assembly and on-orbit operations. Prior to joining Boeing, Caryn worked for Spar Aerospace/MDR on the thermal design of robotic hardware that has now operated successfully on ISS since the early 2000’s. She has recently developed several passive thermal models for use by ISS payload developers, in a more user-friendly format.
Structural, Thermal and Optical Performance (STOP) Analysis
Instructor: Sandra Irish, GSFC
Course Description: A STOP analysis is a multidiscipline analysis, consisting of Structural, Thermal and Optical Performance Analyses, that is performed for all space flight instruments and satellites. This course will explain the different parts of performing this analysis. The student will learn how to effectively interact with each discipline in order to accurately obtain the system analysis results.
Biography: Sandra Irish graduated with an Aerospace Engineering degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. Sandra Irish has been a Mechanical Systems Engineer at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center for 31 years. She has worked as Lead Structural Analyst for many space flight instruments and satellites. She performed one of the first STOP analyses on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) project. Ms. Irish supported GSFC committees that lead to the replacement of the tedious hand-mapping method with a more automated process. Currently she is Lead Structures Engineer for the James Webb Space Telescope.
Aerothermal Design Considerations for Entry, Descent, and Landing
Instructor: Dr. Chun Tang, ARC
Course Description: This course provides an introduction to aerothermal design considerations for a spacecraft entering, descending, and landing in a planetary atmosphere. In particular, this course will describe the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools for aerothermal simulations at hypersonic and supersonic conditions. The class will discuss some best practices for aerothermal modeling and highlight some challenges related to aerothermodynamic simulations and model validation.
Biography: Dr. Chun Tang is a senior aerothermal engineer in the Aerothermodynamics Branch at NASA Ames Research Center. He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from the University of California, Davis. He also received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from UC Davis with a specialty in Computational Fluid Dynamics. Dr. Tang has worked on the Space Shuttle and Mars Science Laboratory Programs, and he is currently involved with the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator and Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Projects.
Thermal Design Parameters and Case Studies (COBE and LDSD)
Instructors: Carol Mosier, GSFC and AJ Mastropietro, JPL
Course Description: This short course will present a brief introduction into the parameters that effect thermal design. Two case studies showing how the thermal design evolves from the mission specific requirements will be given. The first case study is for the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) spacecraft and instruments. The COBE mission, which proved the big bang theory, utilized cryogenic instruments that needed to be colder than space to collect the required science data. The resulting design and thermal challenges will be highlighted. The second case study is for the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) Supersonic Flight Dynamics Test (SFDT) vehicle. The vehicle’s thermal control system had to protect avionics, batteries, cameras, data recorders, and the composite core structure during the freezing cold balloon assisted ascent as well as during the solid rocket powered flight which posed a high heating environment. An introduction to NASA’s LDSD technology demonstration program and a brief review of the thermal design and analysis of the test vehicle including bounding environments will be presented along with some of the thermal telemetry from the first flight followed by several hard lessons learned.
Biographies:
Carol Mosier has been a thermal engineer at the NASA GSFC for over 32 years. She has worked on a wide variety of systems including interplanetary, Earth orbiting, cryogenic, high temperature, and convective and on spacecraft and instruments. These projects include LCRD, TIRS, SAM (MSL), LOLA, ST-5, MAP, JWST, XRS-2 (Astro-E2), CIRS (Cassini), XRS-1 (Astro-E1), WIRE, TRACE, GLAS, TRIANA, SMEX-lite, ULDB, SIRTF, SHOOT, and COBE. Training the next generation of thermal engineers is one of Ms. Mosier’s passions. She conducts a thermal design at Goddard and develops material for the branch’s training website (open to all NASA).
A. J. Mastropietro is currently a Thermal Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he was most recently the Lead Thermal Engineer on the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) Project which had its first successful stratospheric test flight in June 2014. Prior to that assignment, A. J. was also a key member of the Mars Science Laboratory’s (MSL) Heat Rejection System (HRS) Thermal Team that was responsible for implementing the world’s first and only Martian Mechanical Pumped Fluid Loop now operating continuously for over 2.5 years onboard the Curiosity Rover.
Thursday, August 6
Common Modeling Mistakes
Instructor: Ruth Amundsen, LARC
Course Description: Course will cover the some of the common mistakes made in thermal modeling, and how to avoid them. Thermal Desktop will be used as a platform to demonstrate many of the common errors by both new analysts as well as experienced engineers in building a thermal model. Other non-software-associated errors will also be covered. Topics covered will include common errors in assumptions, materials, configurations, radiation, orbital analysis, and common faults in problem setup, analysis case runs and record-keeping. The course should help you as an engineer to watch for these common errors in the future, and help you avoid them.
Biography: Ms. Amundsen has a BS in physics from Stanford University, and dual master’s in materials science and aerospace engineering from University of Michigan. She started in aerospace work at Martin Marietta, and has been at NASA Langley since 1990 doing thermal design and engineering.
Ground Operations, Launch, and Ascent Thermal Analysis, Using Thermal Desktop”
Instructor: Kan Yang, GSFC
Course Description: This short course provides an overview of how to perform thermal analysis for the pre-launch, launch, and ascent mission phases in Thermal Desktop. Though these analyses are not often undertaken by thermal engineers, they are nevertheless crucial to the success of the mission. However, these analyses come with their own set of complexities, mainly arising from atmospheric and ground effects, which are not encountered with typical on-orbit cases. For ground operations, this course will cover thermal analysis of facility storage, gantry cooling, launch vehicle fairing cooling, and pad operations. For launch and ascent, this course will cover the pre-fairing separation, post-fairing separation with free molecular heating, and post-fairing separation with motor soakback phases of the mission. While not all possible launch cases will be covered, the objective of this course is to provide a basic introduction to pre-launch and launch thermal analysis for thermal engineers.
Biography: Kan Yang is a Thermal Engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Michigan and a Master’s Degree from the University of Maryland, both in Aerospace Engineering. He has also held a research position at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Belgium and teaches the thermal section of the Graduate Satellite Design Course at the University of Maryland. Since joining Goddard in fall of 2010, Kan has supported the Global Precipitation Measurement, Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, and James Webb Space Telescope missions.
Contamination Control for Thermal Engineers
Instructor: Rachel Rivera, GSFC
Course Description: This course will cover the basics of Contamination Control, including contamination control related failures, the effects of contamination on Flight Hardware, what contamination requirements translate to, design methodology, and implementing contamination control into Integration, Testing and Launch.
Biography: Rachel Rivera has been a Contamination Engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in the Contamination and Coatings Engineering Branch for 11 years. Rachel earned a Bachelor’s of Engineering in Chemical Engineering at The City College of New York. She earned her Masters of Engineering in Engineering Management at The George Washington University in 2010. Rachel is the contamination group lead for NASA/GSFC Code 546. She provides project contamination control support for GSFC-managed spacecrafts missions such as Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), and recently launched the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). Her supportive duties include implementing the overall mission contamination control approach and program, establishing the effects of contamination based on performance requirements, contamination monitoring and mitigating techniques, as well as developing contamination control studies and procedures.
Coatings for Thermal Engineers
Instructor: Jack Triolo, SGT
Course Description: This course will present an overview of a variety of thermal coatings-related topics, including: coating types and availability, thermal properties measurements, environmental testing (lab and in-flight), environmental impacts, contamination impacts, contamination liabilities, determination of BOL/EOL values, and what does specularity mean to the thermal engineer. In addition, coating selection criteria, for a variety of thermal applications, to meet both thermal and contamination requirements, will be discussed.
Biography: Jack Triolo has worked in the area of thermal coating design and verification at GSFC since 1960. He has served as Section Head of Thermal Coatings Measurements and Environmental Test Section and later of the Contamination and Thermal Coatings Section which was first formed at GSFC in 1983. He served as Principal Investigator for nine flight experiments investigating coatings degradation in a variety of orbits, to study atomic oxygen effects, on-orbit contamination depositions and back scatter.
Effective Schedule and Cost Management as a Product Development Lead
Instructor: Cynthia Simmons, GSFC
Course Description: This course provides best practices, helpful tools and lessons learned for staying on plan and day-to-day management of Subsystem flight development after getting Project approval for your Subsystem schedule and budget baseline.
Biography: Cynthia Simmons has spent more than 30 years as an aerospace engineer working spaceflight missions in the U.S. Air Force, and then later as a civilian working for DoD, DARPA, NRL, commercial space (Iridium) and NASA. In 2000, she began working at Goddard as a contractor thermal systems engineer, and then was hired in March 2010 by Code 556 to be an Instrument Manager. While at Goddard, she has worked several missions including LRO, SAM, ST-5, GOES (L/M and O/P), GPM, Astro-H and most recently, ICESat-II/ATLAS. Cynthia holds a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Air Force Academy graduating in the 3rd class with women and a Master of Engineering degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland.
Friday, August 7
CubeSat Thermal Design
Instructors: Juan Rodriguez, Deepak Patel and Eric Gorman, GSFC
Course Description: What does it take to thermally design low cost, low mass cubesats? What are the differences in the approach when you compare with large scale missions? What additional risk is acceptable? What is the approach to hardware? How is the testing campaign run? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in this course, which is designed to equip you to support the development of cubesats at your organization.
Biographies:
Juan E. Rodriguez-Ruiz has worked in the Thermal Engineering Branch at NASA GSFC since 2005. He is from Puerto Rico and has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico. He worked on the GPM project for over 5 years and has also been involved with LRO, WFIRST, and cubesats. In addition to the technical work, he enjoys participating in Education and Outreach events, and mentoring college summer interns.
Deepak Patel graduated from New Jersey Institute of Technology with his Masters in Mechanical Engineering. He has been a thermal engineer at the NASA GSFC since 2010. Besides his CubeSat work, Mr. Patel supports ATLAS (Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System), an instrument that will measure the change in ice sheet thickness over the North Pole to help scientists understand at what rate is the ice depleting due to rise in sea temperatures. The CubeSat that he is currently focusing on is the Lunar IceCube that will be deployed into lunar orbit and measure trapped ice particles and their real estate on the moon.
Eric T. Gorman has a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park. Mr. Gorman is a Systems Engineer and has worked at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for the past 9 years. He has supported various flight projects including Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), ICESaT-2, and most recently Pre-Aerosols Clouds Elevation (PACE).